James Franco Joins Alien: Covenant in Spoiler-y Role

Alien: Covenant has already assembled a list of impressive cast members, both old and new to the Alien franchise. Now, another notable newcomer has been recruited for the Prometheus sequel: none other than the ubiquitous James Franco.

Possible spoilers ahead!

The casting isn't 100% official yet, as it comes from unofficial Alien news site AvPGalaxy, but they've generally had pretty reliable intel in the past. And according to their report, Franco will appear as Branson, husband of Katherine Waterston's character Daniels and captain of the ship. But even more intriguing, his character reportedly "appears in the first ten minutes or so of the film with later small appearances."

This is likely a spoiler for the first half of the movie, because if it takes place on the Covenant ship, the only reason that he would only appear in the first ten minutes is if his character dies early on. Then, the "small appearances" will likely be flashbacks or recordings he's left for his wife.

And even more significantly, if this is true, this means they'll need to find a new captain of the ship post-haste. The two biggest cast members in the film who are playing members of the crew are Waterston and Danny McBride, the latter of whom is serving as the pilot. Since that role is pretty indispensable, it will likely be Waterston who takes the initiative to become the new captain, especially since her husband's death would be a big motivator. Hopefully she'll become almost as big a bad-ass as Ripley while we desperately wait for the fifth Alien to come out.